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Blue Card in Germany – Application Procedure!

“Accurate information can be a key part of motivation – Mary Ann Allison”

Information can be found in so many places, but the right and complete information in one place might help more in times of need. Procedure to apply for blue card can be found on many websites but I promise to make this simple and complete 🙂

All that you need in one place! 🙂

As promised in my last post, this post would be covering everything one needs to know about the application of Blue Card and the procedure involved. It wasn’t/isn’t easy to know what to do when and how to go about it until one has hit a few dead ends. It took me around couple of hours to calm myself down and look up the procedure for Blue Card when I had to do it.

Here, the links given are pertaining to Stuttgart but documents and procedure remain the same. So whichever city you would be applying for, change the city name to your city name and proceed 🙂

To begin with, prerequisite of applying for blue card are the following documents that one must have:

Almost completed degree (all subjects completed and waiting for thesis defense for example), which should be supported by a letter/document from the university stating the same.

A work contract from a German organization with gross annual income of €49.600. In case of occupations like engineers, doctors, scientists, IT skilled worker, gross annual income of €38,668 is acceptable.

Valid health insurance

Valid house/room rental contract

Having all this, you can begin your application procedure as follows:

Take an appointment with the ausländerbehörde(foreign office) in your city. It takes some time before you get an email with the date and time of the appointment and it can be anywhere between (7 days – 30 days). Example, for Stuttgart, the appointment can be taken here: Stuttgart foreign office appointment

After you receive a confirmation email from them with date and time, it is time to get some documents in order.

The following 6 documents must be sent via email to the foreign office once they email you:

About 110€ for the fees (This depends on situations, it can vary anywhere between 70€ – 110€)

After your appointment, you will receive a document that states your Blue Card is in process and the date of validity and so on. This document should be enough to start working. Once your blue card arrives the foreign office, you will receive a letter from them with a PIN code. It is generally advised to pick up your card from foreign office anytime after 4-5 days after the arrival of the letter.

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33 thoughts on “Blue Card in Germany – Application Procedure!”

Please i need advise, i was at the Auslanderbehorde and was granted Residence permit and they took my finger print, a copy of my passport and 1photo.

My Question is that am still using Duldung but after my finger print they never took it back rather told me i will recieve a letter from Berlin Pin code in 2 to 3 weeks and when am coming for my Residence Card the Man at the office told me then he will take the Duldung from me.

I am asking is that possible or the Man should have given me a paper thats shows that my Residence permit is in process?

Just want to clarify on this or theirs nothing wrong with holding the Duldung till my Card arrives?

Hello Chris,
You will get a letter from Berlin with pin in a few weeks. After which you go to your local Auslanderbehörde and collect you new card. At that time they will ask or you can return the Duldung to them. You don’t need it after that anyways.
Hope this helps and all the best 🙂

Thank you Rahul 🙂
I got it in a couple of weeks or so. You get a post (letter) from Berlin with your online details. One week after that, you can go and pick up your card generally.
All the best 🙂 Hope it all goes smoothly for you.

Hello Venki,
Thank you for the kind words.
Well, you have to apply for blue card once you have a full-time work contract with a company.
As far as I know, without work permit no company allows full-time work since it comes under their legal-grey-area to do so.
Hope this helps.
All the best 🙂

Hi Charu,
Nice Post! Well structured and planned. Quite helpful 🙂
I have few queries, if you too faced something similar before –

1. While applying for the work permit, is it necessary that your prospective employer is in the same city as where you apply for the work permit? If my prospective employer is in Munich, am I allowed to apply for a work permit in Stuttgart? (Because in Stuttgart work permit applications are processed much faster as compared to Munich, according to my research so far).

2. Similarly, can the house rental contract at the time of applying for the work permit be in any German city? Or, it must be in the same city as the place of the prospective employer? Well, Logic says ‘yes’ – but just wanted to know if there are any workarounds 🙂

Sorry, if my questions were confusing. It takes an eternity to get a reply from Stuttgart Visa office, that’s why posting here.

Hello Harsh,
As far as I am aware, your case isn’t that uncommon. I did see a lot of people trying to get their blue card from another city due to comfort/time. But personally, I would suggest it would be better to do it from the same city. For example, if your employer is in Munich then it would be better to apply at Munich office and also show accommodation in Munich. Makes it easier later on (if you plan to change address and so on), also, it might make it more convenient for your employer when it comes to sending documents and so on to your registered address. And also for the visa office to send you letter for blue card.
Hope this helps 🙂
All the best!

Hi Charu,
Good job with the article. I think one point which all the articles on the EU blue card miss is the fact that you also need to submit a certificate which shows your Masters or Bachelors degree and its granting institution is recognized in Germany. This certificate can be obtained simply from the anabin database website. And there is no problem if your last degree was in Germany. In my case, I did my Masters in France and then moved to Germany for a job, so it was a bit different for me. So it would be great, if you can add this point to your article.

Thanks for the additional tip. I have checked the anabin database, and I can see the University as H+, but also there is a section where you Need to pay 100 euros for getting a confirmation certificate (for BLUE Card) application. Is this necessary and needed or just a print of the Status of the University is sufficient?

Hi Charu,
I’m an aspiring confused employee who plans to pursue his MS in Germany. The posts that you are publishing are answers to my doubts about studying in Germany. It helped me a lot in giving me a momentum to come out my comfort zone. Keep writing. 🙂

Hi Charu Pathni, I am Akshay have 10 years experience of .Net DevOps SQL DBA, currently in USA for last three years. I have German dream to work and live there. do you know if there is a way to find a job there first from USA and then apply for Visa and relocate with Blue Card? does the time taken by visa process practically feasible for employers to sustain? is there any consultancy or something that can help me routing my application to potential employers?

Hello Akshay,
As far as I know, you don’t really need a consultancy to do the applications for jobs for you. As for applying for job search visa or blue card directly, that depends on what your future employer asks you to do…:)